Having been born with a birth defect, arthrogryposis, I spent the majority of my childhood and adolescent as a consumer of the health care system. Being a child I guess I never heard about the health care issues we hear of today such as wait lists and the many other issues ailing our health care system.     

The treatment I received as a child and adolescent was always top-notch.  The doctors and health care professionals were always kind, compassionate, and there for me and my family.  Any time there were issues or concerns the doctors were available at any day of the day or night to answer our call.    

I can't suggest any other treatments or ways of treating my condition as I am pretty sure that everything was done the way it should have been. I did have 2 back surgeries and may be that could have been reduced to one surgery by waiting for my body to finish its growth phase before performing the first back surgery (back surgeries are not fun).   

3 years ago I ended up in emergency with a blood clot as a result of being on Diane 35. I feel as though treatment and diagnosis of the DVT were poor.  I was spent from one emergency hospital to another hospital that specialized in vascular surgery. When arriving at this specialized hospital nothing was in place, the specialist had not been consulted, and I had to wait. I was later admitted and told that had the specialist arrived sooner, the blood clot could have been removed or some sort of alternate treatment could have been performed. I then had to spent 2 weeks in the hospital. I was on IV heparin therapy while in the hospital, was not closely monitored upon discharge thus ended up back in the hospital 2 weeks later for another 3 weeks. I have seen a hematologist who was not of much help and my family doctor is unsure what to do.  I wish I had suggestions for others dealing with this medical issue as it is not fun.   

As mentioned there is a lot of talk today about health care issues. I agree there are issues however I, myself now work in the healthcare field and I feel there are answers to some of these "problems" and most of the time it seems as though everyone is jumping on the "healthcare system sucks" bandwagon. I often ask people why they think they healthcare system has failed them and they don't have an answer. Their answers are usually the same that are heard via the media.